There’s an old adage, ‘Nostalgia ain't what it used to be’. It’s not actually that old, it turns out. It emanates from American humorist, Peter De Vries, in 1959.

His point was perceptions can change over time, so that an idealised past we recall may not always hold the same resonance as we get older.

Last month, the Financial Times stated: ‘Nostalgia for the 1990s is everywhere in the UK right now’. The paper, whose strapline used to be ‘No FT, no comment’, was spot on with this comment.

So, what has happened to make this happen?

Battle of the bands

The most obvious change concerns the revival of interest in the music of the 1990s.

Oasis was the biggest band on the planet back then. Though they did not beat Blur in the so-called ‘battle on the bands’ in the summer of 1995 to reach the top spot in the singles chart, they won the war by selling far more albums than Blur.

Oasis had a swagger about them that epitomised a new sense of popular self-confidence and self-belief.

On the back of the reforming of Oasis to conduct a worldwide tour (now that the warring band of brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, are back on speaking-terms), this new nostalgia for the nineties is now in very much vogue.

Oasis play at Murrayfield this coming weekend. Some 200,000 will see them over three nights. Fashion has always closely chimed with music so it’s no surprise that bucket hats are back in, along with animal prints, cargo pants and parkas – not all of which are necessarily associated with Oasis.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray, was only born in 1996. But........

© Herald Scotland